Usually the teams are given all morning and part of the afternoon to do their shopping and find a place on their own for lunch before meeting back up but Notre Dame did their research and found out about Scotchies. Scotchies is one of my FAVORITE "restaurants" in JA. It's pure Jamaica... Jerk chicken smoked right on the logs in front of you, pork, festival, sweet potato, corn and soup. Chicken foot soup, that is. With having such a small team we were able to tweek the schedule and give them less time in town so we could go to Scotchies for lunch. I think everyone really enjoyed it, myself and the guys included. Notre Dame was SUCH a great team in more ways than one but when it came to open mindedness and punctuality, they get an A+ in my book. Granted, we have 1.5 more days to see how it goes but they follow the pattern they've set they're an amazing team that definitely understands TINA (this is not america).
After lunch we all smashed back into the bus (which has turned into a puzzle each and every time) and headed to Dunns River Falls. I'm so used to having CHWC teams and having to get 90 tickets, I was ready to jump out (bus still moving) and run down to order tickets before the team had a chance to unload the bus. Only having 15 non-residents and 2 residents was great! We reached the bottom picnic table area with our favorite guide and they were off. I brought a book and music to keep myself busy. At first all I could do was sit under the tree and look at the water. To this day, the sea here is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. ESPECIALLY when you're sitting in the shade, next to a waterfall with a perfect breeze watching the cruise ship float by listening to kids playing in the water. I literally have to take a deep breath every time I really sit and look at it. After I got over my infatuation with the water, I started reading "Cross Cultural Servanthood" by Duane Elmer for the second time. It's amazing how certain books can jump out at you depending on the setting you're in or where you are in your life at the time. Just the idea of acceptance and categorizing people immediately and all of the subconscious cultural things we do before even meeting a person that automatically hurts our relationships before we even meet. I thought of that all day as I was trying to be conscious of what I was thinking as I met or even just looked at people. One of the things that really jumped out at me was a story written in one of the chapters about a man going to the south side of Chicago and asking his friend, "Is she a prostitute?" and his friend responded with "No that is not a prostitute! That is a person... in prostitution." This is such a different way of looking at things because it is such a natural response for us to simply look at someone and categorize them by their achievements instead of the fact that they're a person that's loved just as much as any other person by God. A big slap in the face was reading that to sin against one of our brothers and sisters here is a sin against God himself... something we don't always think of and probably one of the most common sins we see in Christianity. Just one more thing that stood out (among many others) was "the point of our being blessed is to bless others." If more of us spread love and lived like this in our everyday, we'd reach a point of unity and the world wouldn't be as divided as it is.
When we got home from the falls, they had 2 hours to relax before dinner. Most of them were exhausted from such a busy day and found a shady spot by the water and passed out. I organized some of my things and walked around the yard. When I was walking up towards the top of the property, I saw a precious old man on a moped, wearing a helmet and carrying a bag full of things to sell. There's nothing I hate more than a cute old man on a moped coming on the property to sell things. Not because I really hate it but because there's nothing worse than having to tell a precious old man he can't sell his carvings here! God truly did have me read that book today for a reason because of course at first I saw him driving up and ALL of the negative thoughts came to my head. I was having the "he's one of them sneaking in to sell things to the team..." type of thoughts. I walked up to him before he got to any of the team members to let him know that he really can't be here. As this was all happening, I changed my thought process to realizing he obviously needs money. He's working hard enough to make these carvings and using his energy to find us in order to convince us the face carvings are something we want. Going in with this mentality, I did end up telling him he really isn't supposed to be selling things on property but wow did we have a good raw conversation. His name is Sean and he is one of the most loving people I've ever stumbled across. He was an angel sent here to make me realize things about myself that I hadn't known before. I can guarantee I'll never see him again but will forever be changed by his laugh, love and true inspiration to live a life full of joy. Looking back, I am curious to know what people were thinking when they saw me talking to him on his moped laughing away as if we had been friends for years.
Tonight ended with pasta, Bobby's friend Rose who is a traveling masseuse coming to give massages, great conversation with the Notre Dame kids and a whole lot of thinking. The thought of leaving here keeps briefly crossing my mind and just as quickly the thought of staying forever pops up...
Please keep the prayers coming! There are amazing things going on here... lives being changed every day... mine included.
Good night!
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